Nonduality

Nonduality is the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific understanding of non-separation and fundamental intrinsic oneness.

For thousand of years, through deep inner inquiry, philosophers and sages have come to the realization that there is only one substance and we are therefore all part of it. This substance can be called Awareness, Consciousness, Spirit, Advaita, Brahman, Tao, Nirvana or even God. It is constant, ever present, unchangeable and is the essence of all existence.

In the last century Western scientists are arriving at the same conclusion: The universe does indeed comprise of a single substance, presumably created during the Big Bang, and all sense of being – consciousness – subsequently arises from it. This realization has ontological implications for humanity: fundamentally we are individual expressions of a single entity, inextricably connected to one another, we are all drops of the same ocean.

Science and Nonduality is a journey, an exploration of the nature of awareness, the essence of life from which all arises and subsides.

What is nonduality, anyway?

There are many shades of meaning to the word nonduality. As an introduction, we might say that nonduality is the philosophical, spiritual, and scientific understanding of non-separation and fundamental oneness.

Our starting point is the statement “we are all one,” and this is meant not in some abstract sense, but at the deepest level of existence. Duality, or separation between the observer and the observed, is an illusion that the Eastern mystics have long recognized, and Western science has more recently come to understand through quantum mechanics.

Dualities are usually seen in terms of opposites: Mind/Matter, Self/Other, Conscious/Unconscious, Illusion/Reality, Quantum/Classical, Wave/Particle, Spiritual/Material, Beginning/End, Male/Female, Living/Dead and Good/Evil. Nonduality is the understanding that identification with common dualisms avoids recognition of a deeper reality.

So how can we better understand nonduality?

There are two aspects to this question, and at first glance they appear to be mutually exclusive, although they may be considered two representations of a single underlying reality.

The first aspect is our understanding of external reality, and for this we turn to science. The word science comes from the Latin scientia, which means knowledge. The beauty and usefulness of science is that it seeks to measure and describe reality without personal, religious, or cultural bias. For something to be considered scientifically proven, it has to pass exhaustive scrutiny, and even then is always subject to future revision. Inevitably human biases creep in, but the pursuit of science itself is intrinsically an evolving quest for truth. But then quantum mechanics turned much of this lauded objectivity on its head, as the role of the observer became inseparable from the observed quantum effect. It is as if consciousness itself plays a role in creating reality. Indeed, the two may be the same thing. As quantum pioneer Niels Bohr once put it: “A physicist is just an atom’s way of looking at itself!”

The second aspect is our inner, personal experience of consciousness, our “awareness of awareness.” We have our senses to perceive the world, but “behind” all perception, memory, identification and thought is simply pure awareness itself. Eastern mystics have described this undifferentiated consciousness for thousands of years as being the ultimate state of bliss, or nirvana. Seekers have attempted to experience it for themselves through countless rituals and practices, although the state itself can be quite simply described. As Indian advaita teacher Nisargadatta Maharaj said: “The trinity: mind, self and spirit, when looked into, becomes unity.”

The central challenge to understanding nonduality may be that it exists beyond language, because once it has been named, by definition — and paradoxically — a duality has been created. Even the statement “all things are one” creates a distinction between “one” and “not-one”! Hardly any wonder that nonduality has been misunderstood, particularly in the West.

Find out more about science and nonduality on their fantastic website here.

What if everything we thought and believed to be true turned out to be a story passed down from parent to child through daily, unconscious habits to ceremonial traditions, all designed to help us make sense of our world?

What if the chaos we are witnessing in and around us today is a symptom, evidence even, of an Old Story – the belief in our separateness – breaking down?

Would our fears be lessened and our curiosity piqued if we made a conscious choice to turn our attention toward an emerging New Story? Could an expanding sense of wonder allow room for questions like:

What if babies are conscious? What if sustainability begins with conception? What if Womb Ecology Becomes World Ecology?

When we consider the way we create meaning has always been through stories, other questions arise, like, Who wrote these stories? Can they be changed? What steps can we take toward shifting our current, industrial story of a disconnected humanity to a life-affirming and empowering narrative, authored, as always, by US?

Our daily choices and habits are informed by the context, the Big Picture, whether we are aware we even hold a worldview, a personal mythology or a story of our own being and becoming. This revelation is no sentimental notion, but a scientific fact of human conscious development.

Families for Conscious Living and its initiatives like Kindred Media have explored this New Story from the ground up – in grassroots’ communities – and from the top down – with frontier science researchers and social changemakers – for 20 years. FCL’s nonprofit work has been pioneered by families who have sought out insight and solutions to shifting their own awareness from the limits of the Old Story to the expansive, empowering practical wisdom heralded in the interconnected threads of the New Story. This New Story comes with its own language, phrases like Cultural Creatives, Bio-Cultural Conflict, Grounded Expansion, Harmonic Family Resonance, Phronesis and the Ecology of the Child.

What is needed at this time is a safe gathering place, a sanctuary, created with great compassion to inspire and welcome our imaginations to engage in open dialogue, create connected community and identify resources that support an adventurous exploration of holistic, peaceful and sustainable living.

Welcome to that safe gathering space.

Kindred readers are thoughtfully and courageously exploring the disintegration of the Old Story of Separation, the emergence of a New Story of Connection and the space we, as Cultural Creatives, now occupy between these stories. Kindred readers believe the human reach for wholeness as individuals and in community is always happening, even if we can’t find that story reflected in mainstream media outlets, cultural bias, authoritarian politics or our conformist society. This is the need Kindred fulfills as a nonprofit educational initiative: the need to inspire parents, practitioners and policy makers with the evidence of a world transforming through an independent, alternative media outlet that offers the most cutting-edge, holistic insights from the best conscious living authors, researchers, activists and nonprofits.

For a greater understanding of the The New Story, watch Kindred’s editor’s presentation here.

Visit our donation page to find a variety of ways to support Kindred – with legacy giving, monthly tax-deductible gifts, or in your daily online shopping and local dining activities.

Kindred Media and Community is an alternative media and educational initiative of the American 501C3 nonprofit Families for Conscious Living. Please visit our Guidestar page and Great Nonprofits to read our passionate reviews. FCL was awarded a Great Nonprofits Top-Rated Nonprofits seal in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and holds a Gold Level ranking of nonprofits at Guidestar.